A number of industrial applications, as well as scientific areas such as physics and chemistry can benefit from magnetic detection and imaging with a device that has extraordinary sensitivity, ability to capture signals that fluctuate very rapidly (bandwidth) all with a substantive package that is extraordinarily small in size, efficient in power and infinitesimal in volume.
Atomic-sized magneto-optical defect center elements, such as nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond lattices, have excellent sensitivity for magnetic field measurement and enable fabrication of small magnetic sensors that can readily replace existing-technology (e.g., Hall-effect) systems and devices. The DNV sensors are maintained in room temperature and atmospheric pressure and can be even used in liquid environments. A green optical source (e.g., a micro-LED) can optically excite NV centers of the DNV sensor and cause emission of fluorescence radiation (e.g., red light) under off-resonant optical excitation. A magnetic field generated, for example, by a microwave coil can probe degenerate triplet spin states (e.g., with ms=−1, 0, +1) of the NV centers to split proportional to an external magnetic field projected along the NV axis, resulting in two spin resonance frequencies. The distance between the two spin resonance frequencies is a measure of the strength of the external magnetic field. A photo detector can measure the fluorescence (red light) emitted by the optically excited NV centers.